Walter Block

In his preface to this volume, Israel Kirzner “draw[s] attention to the altogether special contributions made by Professor Lachmann to the creation and growth of the Austrian Economics Program at New York University” and to his “crucially important part in the remarkable revival of interest in Austrian economics” (p.

Mark Skousen

Free-market economists, especially of the Austrian variety, have faced an uphill battle in gaining recognition in the post-Keynesian world. For many years it was difficult, if not impossible, to be published in the prestigious journals, to teach at major universities, to participate in academic conferences, to contribute to edited books, or just to be mentioned in introductory college textbooks. In short, the economics profession was largely antagonistic toward the tiny band of laissez-faire advocates.

David Gordon

Before considering The Origins of Language,1 a preliminary question confronts us. Wells’ book is a historical and critical account of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theories of the origins of language: “aspects of the discussion from Condillac to Wundt,” in the words of its subtitle.

Ralph Raico

States throughout history have persisted in severely encumbering and even prohibiting international trade. Seldom, however, can the consequences of such an effort—the obvious immediate results as well as the likely long-range ones—have been as devastating as in the case of the Allied (really, British) naval blockade of Germany in the First World War. This hunger blockade belongs to the category of forgotten state atrocities of the twentieth century.

Ralph Raico

For several generations now there has existed an overarching interpretation of modern history conditioning and shaping the views held by nearly all educated people on the issue of socialism and the market economy. This interpretation goes roughly as follows: once there was a “class”—“the” bourgeoisie—that came into being with the colossal economic and social changes of early modern history, and strove for recognition and domination.

Joseph T. Salerno

For the most part Ludwig von Mises’s writings on society and social evolution have been ignored by the participants in the current revivals of both Austrian economics and classical liberal political philosophy. When his social theory has been addressed, Mises appears to his critics (Barry 1987, p. 59) as “a child of the Enlightenment wrongly deposited in the twentieth century.” But this assessment is inaccurate for two reasons.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Money and Banking

In order to explain the emergence of barter nothing more than the assumption of a narrowly defined self-interest is required. If and insofar as man prefers more choices and goods to fewer, he will choose barter and division of labor over self-sufficiency.

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel*

Of all the functions of the State, the one generally considered essential above all others is national defense. According to the popular ideal, national defense is a service provided by the State to its citizens. This service entails protection from aggressors outside the State’s jurisdiction, usually foreign States. The most sophisticated theoretical justification for State provision of this service is the public-goods argument.

Murray N. Rothbard

Marx as Millennial Communist

The key to the intricate and massive system of thought created by Karl Marx is at bottom a simple one: Karl Marx was a communist. A seemingly trite and banal statement set alongside Marxism’s myriad of jargon-ridden concepts in philosophy, economics, and culture, yet Marx’s devotion to communism was his crucial focus, far more central than the class struggle, the dialectic, the theory of surplus value, and all the rest.

Thomas J. DiLorenzo

I have often argued that the Austrians seem . . . to be more successful in conveying the central principle of economics to students than alternative schools . . . or approaches.

—James M. Buchanan, 1976